OAKLAND TEACHERS VOTE 95% TO AUTHORIZE A STRIKE:
K-12 teachers in the Oakland
Educators Association moved a big step closer to a strike on
Monday with a large strike authorization vote. After two years of
bargaining for a contract, they are fed up with low-ball offers
too small to live in the city where they teach while class sizes
balloon.

Whereas, the CFA East Bay Chapter upholds the ideals of equal
justice under the law, racial justice, and human dignity for all
of our students; and

Whereas, the recent deaths of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, and too
many others, compel questioning of whether or not equal justice
under the law is possible for young men of color particularly
poor young men of color; and

Whereas, these deaths are indicative of a growing social-economic
division that threatens the current and future well-being of our
students of color; and

Welcome back! I hope everyone had a great winter break and is
enjoying their 3.5% salary increase you should have seen in your
Dec 1, 2018 paycheck!

In other good news, our new Governor has increased funding for
the CSU at an unprecedented level in his initial budget proposal
for 2019-20.

Gov. Newsom’s proposal includes an additional $562 million
dollars for our university system.

$300 million is in new ongoing general fund monies

$262 is one-time funding for deferred maintenance and various
programs including programs that will help to address food and
housing insecurity for our students.

Locally, your CFA officers have been making plans for various workshops and events for
our campus. We will be hosting monthly faculty
luncheons again this semester. The first luncheon is
scheduled for February 19 in the Vintage Room,
11-1.

We are planning several useful workshops for
faculty including a benefits workshop, lecturer rights
workshop, and a workshop focused on reducing student loan debt
for our faculty.

We are also making plans to bring Professor
Dana Cloud to campus for a lecture. Professor Cloud,
has the distinction of being one of the first professors targeted
by Turning Point USA and placed on the Professor Watchlist. She
has written an interesting article on the rhetoric of civility
and its possible dangers to academic freedom. I think she offers
an important counterpoint to dominant discourses that call for
civility without consideration of ongoing structural inequalities
and power dynamics. We are sponsoring her visit in the hopes of
keeping the conversation going.

Humboldt CFA Chapter President Renée Byrd took to the public-comment
microphone at the CSU Trustees meeting last Wednesday to make
a straightforward request: “I’m here to call on you in this room,
and the entire CSU system, to help us save public higher
education at Humboldt.”

The Humboldt administration has announced a budget shortfall of
$9 million, and that a substantial amount must be cut from
instruction.

Last year brought us both good and bad tidings, to say the least,
and before outlining challenges we will face in 2017,
we want to note two important successes from 2016 in which
so many of you participated.

First and foremost, through the hard work and support of hundreds
of HSU faculty members (and many thousands more throughout the
CSU), we won a 10.5 percent pay raise for all faculty
members. We showed what we can accomplish when the faculty
is unified. (And, we have the next installment of the pay
raise — 3.5 percent on July 1 — to look forward to.)

Measure WW on the Long Beach City ballot would protect hotel
workers from sexual harassment, abuse and assault. Gary Hytrek,
the CFA Chapter’s Political Action Chair, says
“Measure WW empowers Working Women and puts Long
Beach on the right side of history. The people of Long Beach must
stand up for justice; physical and sexual abuse have NO
place in our city.”

CFA Statewide President Jen Eagan will be on campus to conduct an
engaging and enriching seminar on how CFA became the mighty union
we are, and how to build power for future Collective Bargaining
Agreements and the future of public higher education in
California.

OPPOSITION TO NEW RESTRICTIONS ON CAL STATE L.A.
ADMISSIONS: Declaring No To
Impaction, a group of faculty, staff and
students are fighting campus President Covino’s plan to declare
impaction at Cal State Los Angeles, which will make it harder for
students in East and South Los Angeles to get into college, and
would cut seats for 600 new students a year.

STRENGTH & SOLIDARITY: Dozens of faculty,
students, and community allies showed up at the LA County
Courthouse last week to support for CFA member and justice
activist Melina Abdullah, who is being targeted for holding
police accountable for their actions.

INSTRUCTIONS:To cast your
vote, please click on the circle to the left of the candidate’s
name. If you wish to write in an alternative candidate,
please do so in the space directly below each office
opening. You also have the option to abstain from voting
for a particular office.

Join your colleagues at these events! For more information,
and to RSVP, contact the CSUMB-CFA office at cfa_mb@calfac.org or
call 831-582-3028. Some events are open solely to CFA
members–faculty can join today!

NORTHRIDGE CFA CHAPTER VP HONORED AT TRUSTEES
MEETING: CSU Northridge CFA Chapter Vice President Ivor
Weiner, a professor of Special Education, was honored with a
CSU Wang
Family Excellence Award at the CSU Board of Trustees this
week. In his remarks accepting the award, he said, “I am humbled
and honored to accept this award, and I give thanks to CFA and my
CSUN CFA chapter for always leading the way in giving a voice to
the voiceless.” Northridge CFA Chapter President Nate Thomas
also received the Wang Award, in 2015.

DO YOU KNOW SOMEONE WHO WAS TURNED AWAY FROM THE
CSU? They did the work in high school or community
college. They got the grades. They were promised a seat in the
CSU. But they were turned away. There are tens of thousands of
qualified students who wanted to go to the CSU but were not
admitted. CFA is interested in learning their stories. If you
know such a student, please ask him or her to go tohttps://www.calfac.org/pod/were-you-turned-away-csu

UNITING TO HELP: CFA activists at Sacramento
State will be joining with other union colleagues to collect
donations for fire victims during a Unity Break from 10-10:30 am
Thursday, Nov. 29 in the Library Quad.

The Sacramento CFA Chapter will host an all-campus Town Hall
meeting next Wednesday, May 10, noon to 1 pm in Sequoia 338, to
explore revelations that about 85% of campus drinking water has
detectable levels of lead.

An Anti-Racism Workshop

Why does racism persist? Have you ever wondered what to do in
those triggering moments when racism occurs? Let’s work on it
together. We invite you to participate in this dynamic workshop
that is both timely and prescient.

CFA hosts a Lecturers’ Issues Lunch, on Tuesday, September 18
from 12:30-1:30pm, in the Faculty Staff Club.

We’ll discuss how to calculate the work you are entitled to
receive, what to do if the work isn’t offered to you, and how to
protect and increase your Time Base “Entitlement.”__________________________________________

CFA hosts an Equity and Diversity Lunch Roundtable, on Monday,
September 17 from 12:00-1:00pm, in Scripps Cottage.

Our Roundtable topic will be, What should Anti-Racism and Social
Justice look like at SDSU and throughout higher education?
As we strive for learning and work environments that are just and
anti-racist, what kinds of individual actions and campus policies
are needed? We’ll have a roundtable conversation, led by
CFA Executive Board member Regina Brandon, to share experiences
and ideas.__________________________________________

After several years of concerted organizing and advocacy by the
CFA and SQE, CA lawmakers approved a funding increase by $364
million to the CSUs in June 2018 as part of the state’s 2018-19
fiscal budget.

Whereas the Academic Senate recognized Professor Serie McDougal
specifically for the extraordinary contributions that he was
making to the campus community through his work as interim
director of the Black Unity Center and

Whereas Dr. McDougal was not renewed for his interim position
despite not having been told that there were any problems with
his tenure and therefore no opportunity to correct or address and
possible discrepancies and given only the most perfunctory and
informal of reviews at all and

During Black History Month, faculty at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
are continuing “blunt conversations” about the overtly racist
attitudes that surfaced on campus over the past year through a
12-hour Teach-In on Thursday, Feb. 21 to assert that “Inclusion Starts with Me.”

We were dismayed to learn that the Office of Student Rights and
Responsibilities is investigating a group of Cal Poly students
who conducted a peaceful demonstration to protest the presence of
military contractor Raytheon at a recent Cal Poly career fair.
These students were clearly exercising their constitutionally
protected free speech rights. They did not break any laws or
violate any campus policies.

CFA hosts an Equity and Diversity Lunch
Roundtable, on Thursday, April 19, 12:00-1:00pm, in USU
2310. Our lunch topic is: How to talk about race
and anti-racism with your students. How do these
situations come up in your classes? How do you address
them? What are strategies you can employ to promote a
productive discussion in the classroom?

CFA hosts a Lecturers’ Issues Lunch on Wednesday, April 11 from
12:00-1:00pm, in USU 2310.

Our main topics will be: protecting and increasing your Time Base
“Entitlement” for the Fall semester, applying for summertime
Unemployment Benefits (most Lecturers are eligible), and
reviewing the status of our CFA push for an Equity Pay program
for all faculty members (including all Lecturers).

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES: The CSU campuses
affected by intense wildfires and smoke have reopened this
week, including at
Sonoma State, which was closed for a week. Sonoma CFA Chapter
President Elaine Newman said, “There has been incredible loss and
suffering here by faculty, students, and staff, and it’s too soon
to know the extent. Two faculty in my department alone lost
homes.”